FERNLEY - If you are a fan of defensive battles, Fernley was the place to be Thursday night.
The Lowry High School junior varsity team made its way west on Interstate 80 to face the Vaqueros in what turned out to be the lowest scoring game of the year for the Buckaroos.
Fernley took advantage of two Lowry turnovers to win 10-7 and hand the Buckaroos (5-2 Division I-A North, 6-2 overall) their second consecutive loss.
"Offensively, we have been bringing it this year but just got shut down tonight," said LHS head coach Taua Cabatbat. "We just shot ourselves in the foot. Except for one drive, we couldn't get anything going. We hurt ourselves with penalties and turnovers. The defense worked hard, but we put them in a bad spot twice."
The Vaqueros took up nearly five minutes off the clock on the opening drive of the game, before having to punt. Fernley pushed Lowry back into poor field position at the 5-yard line.
The Buckaroos fumbled on their first play from scrimmage, allowing the Vaqueros to move just three yards for a touchdown. The Vaqueros' Kyle Throckmorton connected with Kenan Dold to give Fernley a 7-0 lead with 6:51 left in the first quarter.
Lowry could not get anything going offensively, punting on its next two possessions.
After forcing a Vaquero punt, the Buckaroos provided its best drive of the night, moving the ball 58 yards in two minutes. Lowry quarterback Omar Guerrero began the drive with an 11-yard pass to Jared Taylor and Caleb Ahnefeld followed with a 30 yard run down to the Fernley 10-yard line. Guerrero finished off the possession with a 2-yard run on a quarterback sneak and Lowry trailed 7-6 after the missed 2-point conversion with 9:10 left in the first half.
The offenses struggled for the final nine minutes of the half, with the Vaqueros punting twice and the Buckaroos throwing an interception.
Lowry pushed the ball down to the Fernley 35-yard line to start the third quarter, but saw that drive end on downs. The Buckaroos had another drive end on downs and a punt in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Vaqueros had two drives end with a punt in the third quarter and another on a missed field goal at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Lowry had an opportunity to go on the winning drive after forcing Fernley to quick kick on third down after a handful of penalties made it third and 44.
The Buckaroos took over at the 20-yard line following the punt, but on the next play threw an interception that led to a 22-yard field goal by Carlos McIntyre with 1:47 left in the game.
After an onside kick by Fernley, Lowry took over at the 50-yard line with one last chance to win the game, but committed yet another turnover to end the game.
"Fernley basically scored 10 points by gaining 10 yards," Cabatbat said. "I couldn't be happier with the defense. They did everything they could for us."
Lowry closes out its season on Friday with a road trip to Fallon to play Churchill County at 4:30 p.m.
"We are going to go there and play with some pride," Cabatbat said. "We are just looking to put a complete game together with both our offense and defense. The best team right now at the JV level is Fallon. We are going to see if we can go challenge them."[[In-content Ad]]
